Harry Elton

Harry Elton (5 January 1930 – 16 May 2004) was a Canadian broadcaster, primarily known as the television producer who championed the development of the British television programme Coronation Street in 1960, currently the world's longest-running television soap opera in production. Elton is also known for his work in Canada as a radio and television presenter.

Early life Henry John Elton was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1930. When his father died in 1935, Elton's mother moved the family to Detroit, Michigan in the United States. Elton attended Wayne State University, and in 1951 he travelled to London where he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for one year. Despite being offered a scholarship at RADA, he returned to Detroit where he obtained his first job in television at WXYZ-TV.

Career in Britain The fledgling ITV television franchises in the United Kingdom recruited a number of Canadians in the late 1950s, and Elton was hired as a drama producer for Granada in Manchester in 1957.

Elton left Granada in 1963 to return to Canada. By this point, Coronation Street was one of the highest rated programmes on British television. Warren credited Elton with the fate of the show, saying that Coronation Street would never have seen the light of day without Elton's "dogged determination".

Career in Canada Upon returning to Canada in 1963, Elton discovered that Coronation Street was unknown to Canadians at that time. The show eventually debuted on Toronto's CBLT in July 1966 and later became a large success in Canada,

Around the time of his retirement, he remarried to his second wife, CBC Radio colleague Marguerite McDonald. In retirement, Elton became fascinated with China and its people, and he taught English to college students in China from 1994 to 1996. While serving on the board of the Ottawa chapter of the Canada-China Friendship Society, Elton died of a sudden heart attack in 2004 while in Lhasa for a celebration of the Society's Chinese counterpart.